Broken Dove (Fantasyland #4)(214)

But I got the jist of it and the jist of it was that apparently, dads with sons stopped being idiot dads when they had daughters.

Or at least they weren’t idiot dads with their daughters.

I could tell by Finnie’s stories of how Frey was with their Alyssa.

Added proof were the stories I read through Circe’s letters of how Lahn was with Andromeda (then again, he wasn’t an idiot dad with Isis, either; just Tunahn).

And last, from what I’d learned through Cora’s letters of how Tor was with their little Dara.

I was grinning as I was nearing the end of Finnie’s tales of Frey turning from idiot dad to an overprotective one when I felt movement in the room.

I looked up to see Élan entering.

She walked directly to me, threw herself on the sofa beside me and crossed her arms on her little girl chest.

I knew what that meant.

“I take it the carriage is ready,” I remarked and she tipped her head back to aim her jade eyes to me.

“Do I have to go back, Maddie?” she asked on a pout.

“I’m afraid you do, honey bunch. School is important.”

She aimed her eyes in front of her and kept pouting. “I don’t know why you stay all the way out here in the country when Papa has a house right in Benies.”

I didn’t know either. Except that it was peaceful here. And I suspected my husband, as any soldier would in a time without war, needed peace.

“Maybe I can talk your father into moving there for a couple of weeks so you and Chris can come home after school rather than staying there,” I offered. “And on the weekends we can go shopping, and have a pastry in a café, and maybe he’ll take us for dinner at Le Pont de L’eau.”

Her head shot back and I again got her eyes. “Would you?”

“Anything for you,” I replied and it was absolutely no lie.

Her face lit.

And my sweet Élan’s face lit often, but I suspected this time it was because she knew what I said was true.

A voice came from the door.

“Hurry up,” Chris called. “The carriage is waiting.”

Élan started pouting again but I put the letter aside and got up from the couch, grabbing her hand and tugging her up with me.

We walked hand in hand to the door as Christophe watched, his eyes aimed to our clasped hands.

He never missed anything. Not Chris. He was ever watchful.

As any good soldier or writer would need to be.

He moved out of the door when we arrived. He then fell in step on the other side of me as we made our way to the front door.

I thought I would get used to it, the contentment, the calm that came from the absolute understanding that I had everything.

Walking to the door with Chris and Élan, marveling at the sweet sensation of having them in my life and having them accept me in theirs, I knew I’d never get used to it.

And I knew why.

Because it got better when Chris opened the door and my husband, standing on the steps waiting for us, the sun shining on his dark hair, his green shirt opened at the collar, his brown breeches fitting him way to well, turned our way.

His warm, contented eyes slid through me before he looked to his kids.

“Ready?” he asked.

“I’m ready,” Chris answered.

“I’m never ready to go back to school,” Élan groused.

“We’ll see you at the week’s end, precious girl,” Apollo told her. “Now, give Maddie a kiss and let us be away.”

Élan let my hand go but only to turn to me and give me both of her arms.

I bent to her and gave her mine as well as a kiss on the cheek.

She touched her lips to mine before she let me go and dragged her feet as she walked to her father. Her step lightened when he lifted a hand to her and she reached out to take it.

Chris turned and looked up at me. “Until the week’s end, Maddie.”

I lifted a hand and again marveled at the sensation of how beautiful it was when he allowed me to bend to him and cup his jaw.

“Look after your sister,” I told him softly.

“I will,” he replied.

I gave him a smile.

He smiled back.

I marveled at the sensation that caused too.

I dropped my hand and Chris turned, sauntering with his father’s grace to the carriage Élan had already entered.

I moved to Apollo, put a hand on his stomach and tipped my head back.

He took the invitation and dropped his to touch his mouth to mine.

“I’ll return in a few hours, my dove,” he said there.

“See you then, baby.”

He grinned against my lips.

I returned the favor.

Then he brushed his mouth to mine before he moved away and I watched him mount his horse.

I stood on the steps of our country house in Fleuridia, the first place I’d known in this world, and waved as the carriage rolled away, Apollo riding at its side.

My husband didn’t wave back but he bowed his head to me.

Élan, however, hung out the carriage window and waved frantically.

I stood where I was until they were out of sight.

Since the view was long, this took some time.

But I had hours to kill before my man returned, so I took it. And I enjoyed the vision before me. The colors so vivid they hurt the eyes. The memory that here was where I left a life not worth living behind and was given a life that was worth dying for.